Victim in Lord Ahmed crash 'over alcohol limit'

A driver killed when his crashed car was hit on a motorway by the Labour peer Lord Ahmed of Rotherham had more than twice the legal alcohol limit in his blood, an inquest heard yesterday.

Martyn Gombar, a 28-year-old Slovak living in Sheffield, had driven at more than 100mph and used his mobile phone before hitting the central barrier on the M1, according to his terrified passenger, Josef Gazi, who survived both accidents.

Ahmed, who was jailed in February for 12 weeks for dangerous driving, had used his own mobile to send texts several minutes before his Jaguar ploughed into Gombar's wrecked, stationary, Audi.

Gazi, who was not at the inquest in Sheffield, told police that he and Gombar had scrambled from the Audi and run to the hard shoulder. But Gombar realised his phone was still in the wreck and went back. The inquest heard that he was killed instantly when Ahmed, travelling at 60mph and carrying his wife and mother, hit his car in the dark. The inquest heard that the peer's last text was sent when the Jaguar was two miles from the scene.

Gombar had been driving from Huddersfield to a party in Doncaster on Christmas Day 2007 when his Audi slewed out of control on the southbound carriageway between Wakefield and Barnsley.

Ahmed pleaded guilty to dangerous driving at a hearing at Sheffield crown court, where he admitted sending five texts during an 18-mile journey. He was told by Mr Justice Wilkie that there was no alternative but jail for such "prolonged bad driving involving deliberate disregard for the safety of others". He was released after 16 days in jail when the court of appeal suspended his sentence. The inquest into Gombar's death continues.